Xi Jinping’s tour of Southeast Asia this week is likely intended to “screw” the United States, President Donald Trump suggested, as the Chinese leader embarks on a five-day tour of some nations hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs.
China’s president arrived in Hanoi on Monday, where he met Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam, called for stronger trade ties, and signed dozens of cooperation agreements, including on enhancing supply chains.
Reacting to the meeting from the Oval Office, Trump said the discussions in Vietnam were focused on how to harm the U.S., even though he didn’t hold it against them.
“I don’t blame China; I don’t blame Vietnam,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“That’s a lovely meeting. Meeting like, trying to figure out, ‘how do we screw the United States of America?’”
Vietnam is among a handful of countries in Southeast Asia that are reeling from some of the most punitive of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, which have a rate of 46%.
A major industrial and assembly hub, the U.S. is Vietnam’s main export market, which is crucial for providing everything from footwear, apparel, and electronics.
In the first three months of this year, Hanoi imported goods worth about $30 billion from Beijing while its exports to Washington amounted to $31.4 billion.
Xi’s visit to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia this week comes as Beijing faces tariffs of 145%, and as other countries seek to negotiate reductions in their reciprocal tariffs during the 90-day reprieve.
Xi’s trip to Hanoi offers an opportunity to consolidate relations with a neighbor that has received billions of dollars of Chinese investments in recent years as China-based manufacturers moved south to avoid tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration.
Xi had planned to travel to the region prior to Trump’s tariff announcement, but the visit was fortuitously timed, with the Chinese leader positing China as a stable trading partner, in contrast to the chaotic policy backflips coming out of Washington.
In an article in Nhandan, the newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Xi wrote that there are “no winners in trade wars and tariff wars” and that protectionism “leads nowhere.”
In a later meeting with Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh, Xi emphasized that the two countries should oppose unilateral bullying.
Chinese and Vietnamese state media reported on Monday that 45 agreements were signed between the two nations, including on rail links, although specific details were not shared.
Under pressure from Washington, Vietnam is tightening controls on some trade with China, and a Trump administration official stated that the president and Vietnam’s Lam had agreed to “work to reduce reciprocal tariffs.”
Vietnam, along with many other Southeast Asian countries, is attempting to maintain a delicate balancing act between the U.S. and China, amid fears that the region could be used as a potential dumping ground for Chinese exports barred from the U.S.
Escalating tensions between the U.S. and China have fueled concerns about the “decoupling” of the world’s two largest economies, a fear Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sought to dispel on Monday.
“There’s a big deal to be done at some point,” Bessent said when asked by Bloomberg TV about the possibility that the world’s largest economies would decouple.
“There doesn’t have to be” decoupling, he added, “but there could be.”
The White House appeared to have dialed down the pressure recently, listing tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors, and other electronic products for which China is a major source.
However, Trump and some of his top aides stated on Sunday that the exemptions had been misconstrued and would only be temporary.
“Nobody is getting ‘off the hook’… especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
After a two-day stop in Hanoi, Xi will continue his Southeast Asian trip by visiting Malaysia and Cambodia from Tuesday to Friday.
image source from：https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/15/china-xi-jinping-vietnam-screw-donald-trump
